Mr. Cur wen's Agricultural Gathering. 89 



work, and scanned the turnip drills, and then came 

 back to finish the business portion of the day among 

 the cattle in the yards, or at the sale of Shorthorn 

 heifers. Mr. Curwen had also a good deal to say on 

 new manures and the subject of salt as an antidote to 

 sheep-rot. It was placed on slates all round the fields 

 for sheep, and the shepherd on his mule with a sack 

 of small blocks of it behind him was quite a feature 

 of the day. 



Mr. Curwen conducted, A.D. 1810, some fattening 

 experiments, for the report of which the Board of 

 Agriculture awarded him a 5O/. prize. His "experi- 

 mental cattle" consisted of a couple of Shorthorns, 

 Herefords, Glamorgans, Galloways, and Longhorns, 

 and a solitary Sussex. The greatest profit was 

 8/. los. \d. on Shorthorn No. 2, which increased in 

 weight from QOst. to I i5st. ; and the second best was 

 6L i6s. 5</. on a Hereford, which began at 6ist. /Ibs., 

 *txid made 28st. /Ibs. In the case of the former, the 

 food, in wnich 6st. 61bs. of oilcake was the only arti- 

 ficial stimulant, cost 7/. i?s. jd^ and in the latter 

 7/. 19^-. nd. ; and each of them was purchased at 43. 

 and sold at 6s. per stone. 



A race of cattle closely akin to the " Hereford rent- 

 payers," but whose origin has never be^n quite un- 

 ravelled, flourished about this period in Cumberland, 

 and were familiarly known as " Lamplugh Hawkies." 

 In his prize essay on the Agriculture of West Cum- 

 berland, Mr. Dickinson thus describes their pecu- 

 liarities : " They were chiefly dark red or brown, and 

 some of them nearly black with white faces and legs, 

 and usually a stripe of white along the back. The 

 eyes were commonly margined by a narrow strip of 

 colour, as if bound about with coloured tape." Our 

 historian adds that they stood low on the leg, with 

 very large carcases, thick joints and hides, and 

 " abundance of neck leather and dewlap." As to their 

 horns, there is no telling what future naturalists might 



